M&M’s, Bud Light Kick Off Super Bowl Promos on Facebook

Super Bowl marketing on Facebook is now in a full sprint down the sideline, as brands look to score social media points with consumers leading up to the Feb. 6 event. And candy maker M&M’s and Bud Light have jumped in the game.

M&M’s, part of Mars Inc., is running Facebook.com ads to promote its e-commerce initiative, mymms.com. Copy mentions this year’s Super Bowl teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. Here’s one example: “Get a free bag of officially licensed Steelers branded M&M’s Candies for your Super Bowl party when you spend $35+ at mymms.com!”

Interestingly, viewers clicking the ad are not taken to the brand’s Facebook page as is the case with many promotions on the social site. They instead arrive at mymms.com, where they are encouraged to buy either a 7-ounce bag of personalized M&M’s ($9.99), a 5-pound bag ($118.99), or a dispenser ($59.99). The items would be adorned with a logo with the purchaser’s NFL team of choice. M&M’s has a licensing deal with the league to make the branded packaging, and has similar relationships with the NBA and MLB.

Bud Light meanwhile has asked its Facebook community to guess the storylines of its three Super Bowl commercials. Via an app called “Unlock the Spot,” once they predict the correct scenarios, the brewer will unveil a 1-minute, 30-second spot exclusively to its Facebook audience. The video ads are pieces in a larger “Here We Go” campaign, which portrays “average Joe” characters in routine circumstances that turn adventurous once Bud Light enters the scenario.

In addition, on Wednesday, the Anheuser-Busch brand released an :18 YouTube teaser to a commercial (see video below) called “Office Bike-a-Thon,” which directs viewers to its Facebook page (949,000 “likes”) at the end of the spot. It’s unclear whether the spot teased will appear in a pre-game ad or one of its in-game commercials.